Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Service No: L/9643
Date & place of birth: 1894 in Bedham or Kirdford, Sussex
Date, place of death & age: 13 November 1914 (aged 20) near Veldhoek, Belgium
We have been unable to find a connection between Hubert Lucas Pullen and Lodsworth, although a newspaper report of his death refers to him as ‘of Lodsworth’ and he is listed on the village’s war memorial. Hubert was born on the other side of Petworth and probably lived in Tillington before enlisting as a regular soldier in 1911. He was killed in Belgium early in the war and his mother subsequently lived in Lavant.
Family background
Hubert Lucas Pullen was born in 1894 in Bedham or Kirdford and baptised on 24 June 1894 in Fittleworth. He was the son of Amelia Pullen, who was unmarried.
His mother subsequently married George Bromham in 1898 and by 1901 Hubert may have been living with them at Brookfield Cottages, River, near Tillington.
Military service
Hubert enlisted in Chichester as a regular soldier Private L/9643 in ‘C’ Company of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, part of the Army’s 1st Division.
By 1911, he was stationed at the Barracks of the Royal Sussex Regiment in Broyle Road, Chichester and subsequently in Woking.
On 12 August 1914, his battalion embarked from Southampton for Le Havre. During 1914, they were involved in the Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat, the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of the Aisne. He was awarded the Mons Star for serving in the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front.
Death and commemoration
Hubert was killed in action near Veldhoek, north of Ypres in Belgium, in the First Battle of Ypres on 13 November 1914. He was aged 20. The Mid Sussex Times of 22 December 1914 has amongst those killed:
Private H Pullen,
2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (of Lodsworth).
He has no known grave but is commemorated on The Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium and on the Lodsworth war memorial.
Subsequent family history
Herbert’s mother was later living at Crows Hall Farm, Binderton Lane, Lavant. She may have died in 1947 aged 75.